Wireless communications has enabled the possibility to communicate information over long distances, where the use of a wired connection would be impractical. However wireless communications often involve the transmission of energy into the public airwaves, which can then be detected by a receiving device. The airwaves being considered a public resource is often regulated by the government to help avoid conflicting uses. This includes frequent allocation by the government of portions of the airwaves to particular users and uses that have been deemed to be beneficial.
Initially the wireless spectrum was more widely used for one way broadcast type communications including broadcast radio and television, where different portions or channels within the available spectrum would often be reserved for a particular broadcaster. Multiple listening devices could tune into the reserved channel for a particular broadcaster and receive the signal being currently transmitted. Broadcasting/transmitting devices would preferably be restricted to their reserved channel and would need to avoid transmitting into the spectrum space within which they were not authorized to operate.
However systems soon developed that enabled multiple users to communicate within a particular shared spectrum space. The corresponding communications often included two way communications, which tended to be more private, and/or were intended to be restricted to a fewer number of devices. Communication systems developed that would support multiple more private communication connections, that often apportioned the allotted spectrum into still smaller chunks, which could each be used and/or be temporarily assigned to support each of the more private communication connections. A desirable signal for one particular communication connection is generally considered undesirable noise relative to all other coexisting communication connections. In order to support as many private communication connections as possible, it is often beneficial for devices to be able to operate within their allotted space while minimizing their impact into the non-allotted portions of the spectrum.
As such, it is common for devices that are intended to be used in a shared system of communication to undergo testing, such as electromagnetic compatibility testing, so as to help insure that they will operate within a system as intended while attempting to reduce the negative impact to other devices similarly operating within the system. Testing may also be used to help determine if the devices might stray from their allotted spectrum space, and/or if so, to help insure that the devices do not significantly impact in a negative way other portions of the airwaves that the devices are not intended to operate.
Correspondingly, a device may undergo testing from regulatory bodies, standards bodies, and/or other industry groups. Some of the testing can take the form of and/or include radiated tests, which includes the transmission and detection of a radiated signal. Some of the same or other tests can include a conducted test, which allows for the signals, which are intended to be transmitted, to be monitored prior to being wirelessly transmitted. For example, a conducted test can sometimes include a port that can be used to monitor the signal prior to being conveyed to a radiating structure, such as an antenna. As such, a device may support both the conveyance of a communication signal via a radiating structure, as well as a wired port.
Regulatory test can sometimes require both conducted and radiated tests of electromagnetic compatibility to make sure that a device is not transmitting spurious emissions into a protected band. Standard bodies, being more concerned with the interoperability of the device with corresponding network infrastructure may focus more on conducted testing, for purposes of determining compliance with their specifications. Other industry groups may focus on other forms of testing that can include initial radiated testing to verify a design, as well as a subsequent more widely applied conducted testing of power for a statistical check relative to the overall mass production distribution of a device.
The present inventors have recognized that in order to better manage the functionality of the communication signal conveyance that might take multiple forms, such as forms including one or both wired (i.e. conducted) and wireless (i.e. radiated), that it would be beneficial to incorporate a feedback structure that would enable the feedback loop to take into account the different forms and/or modes of operation of the device, so as to allow control of the power level of the signal to be better managed. In at least some instances the feedback path can be conditioned to enable the signals being fed back for at least some of the different modes to appear the same or similar relative to the circuitry, which is intended to respond to the feedback signal.